I hadn't listened to many of Matt's podcast lately, for no reason other than I got caught up on other ones. So, a couple weeks ago I pull his up and see that they are interviewing Danny Rinella. How many dang Rinellas are there? They are all involved in the outdoor realm too, must have been a very strong family influence.
For the record, I don't recommend that episode unless you are into Alaska fishing.
Anyways, I don't see how you can argue with Matt's stance. I'm guilty of a lot of what he speaks up against, many of us are whether you want to admit it or not.
Social media influencers have ruined so much. They admit it now as well, I mean many are now going on outfitted or trespass type hunts because they cannot get tags anymore. Or, they have a "guest" on who has the tag and someone tags along and documents it.
Or, they get invited by fan boy to hunt with them on their premier property.
It is not just hot spotting or giving away honey holes either. It's the social media presence that allures so many people to get involved in something that they never would have if social media never existed. This is not just specific to hunting. Hiking trail heads are full now, walk down the trail and you're likely to encounter a "influencer" with a camera stuck in their face.
I'll give you another example. Just today, at a family birthday party, I was talking with my sister in law about their recent Las Vegas trip(they go every MLK weekend) Her exact words "it was weird this year, I've never seen so many people talking to smart phones stuck in their faces. They even have them now with lights all around the phone and carriers attached to their waste".
EVERYONE is an influencer now. When you influence something that offers very little room for new patrons, it gets busy real fast.
As for outfitters and leasing. It's simple, people with the means choose not to deal with the masses so they dish out the dollars. Matt uses the milk river as an example; before it got its name from TV hunters people had ample and free access to hunt those nice whitetails. It got famous, then it got busy, then it went to the highest bidder.
In my short tenure of out of state hunting, things have drastically changed. Most have been negative. Harder to draw tags, more pressure, less access….
What took me a decade to learn can now be learned on YouTube in one winter, for free. On the surface it sounds great but in reality the system isn't set up for it.
*I typed all that out on my phone. Hopefully it's coherent, I'm not proofreading it.